Flights - Overnight or Day with 3 month old?

karmah1

karmah1

Registered User
Hi All,

My husband and I are flying back to Sydney next March and our baby will be about 3 1/2 months if he arrives on time. Can anyone recommend would it be better to take the day flight or overnight flight with such a young infant.

The day flight departs 9am and arrives 9pm
The overnight flights depart 7pm arrives 7am or departs 9.30pm and arrives 9.30am.

We are looking at flying Cathay in Economy class, but hope to upgrade to business if we have enough Asia Miles. Although I've been reading that the new Cathay Business class does not have the baby basinet on some legs.

This is our first baby and first time at travelling with such a young infant so any advice would be much appreciated!

Thanks very much
Julie
 
at 3-4 months it doesnt matter so much as they will be sleeping most of the time. But personally I always preferred the night flight that way u reach in the morning and u can start your routine
 
Hi Julie,

We flew HK - Sydney in May this year when bubs was 1 and a bit months. Ours was a night time flight and we found that worked well as the cabin was dark and Finn slept most of the time and just woke up for feeds. We flew Qantas and found the crew to be very helpful. I would definitely recommend reserving a baby bassinet, that way when baby is sleeping, hopefully you can get some sleep too.

Cheers,
Grace
 
Hi Julie,
We flew with my boy roundtrip to and from San Francisco when he was 3.5 months old. For us, we found it really helpful to be on a night flight. Even though at 3.5 months he slept a lot, but nonetheless, he definitely had a day and night routine and sleep schedule. So being on the night flight meant that he spent majority of the time asleep. But I guess it also depends on your baby's sleep schedule.
As for Cathay Business class, the new Business class seats shouldn't be a problem in that it only becomes a problem if you plan on buying your baby his own seat to bring a car seat onboard. Otherwise, they do have baby bassinets. You just need to request it when making reservations. The other thing to consider is whether or not your baby will even sleep in a bassinet. My son would not sleep in the bassinet as he found it too cramped (he was also on the very large side when he was 3.5 months old). Instead he sleep on my lap so thankfully we were in Business class! Good luck!
 
I have 3 kids, age 4 1/2 and almost 2 (twins). They have flown at every age, but I still prefer night on the long distance. It's just less work, no doubt about it.

As far as business and/or economy ... We've done both a lot of times. I prefer economy with kids, but then only when getting them their own seat (we've done business with 1 own seat for my oldest, but with 5 it gets a little pricey too). Having a child on your lap is a pain, no matter how big or small, no matter which class you're travelling in.
 
karmah1 said:
Hi All,

My husband and I are flying back to Sydney next March and our baby will be about 3 1/2 months if he arrives on time. Can anyone recommend would it be better to take the day flight or overnight flight with such a young infant.

The day flight departs 9am and arrives 9pm
The overnight flights depart 7pm arrives 7am or departs 9.30pm and arrives 9.30am.

We are looking at flying Cathay in Economy class, but hope to upgrade to business if we have enough Asia Miles. Although I've been reading that the new Cathay Business class does not have the baby basinet on some legs.

This is our first baby and first time at travelling with such a young infant so any advice would be much appreciated!

Thanks very much
Julie
Click to expand...

I would take the flight in which you land at night--because if your child happens to suffer from any sort of jet lag it is easier to put them to bed at night rather than try to keep them up for a full day in order to reverse the jet lag. At 3 months it might not be such a big deal--and it all depends on what your child's sleeping habits are by that time. Some children are sleeping through the night by that time and others take longer (my son was sleeping through the night at 5 months) so I think just take the sleep situation into consideration.
 
Thanks all for your comments and suggestions. My husband also thinks the night flight will be best and hopefully with a dark cabin we can all get some sleep. Lucky the time difference between HK and Sydney is only 3 hours so jet lag should not be too much of a problem.
 
Absolutely take the night flight. Whilst you may be a little tired yourself you will be feeling a whole lot more relaxed than having been trapped in a tube for 9hrs which a restless child.
 
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